


qiaolian and captain ameribear

by independentalto



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Build A Bear, F/M, Phil is a dork, melinda hates shopping malls, this isn't in canon at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25254148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/independentalto/pseuds/independentalto
Summary: After an op in a crowded shopping mall, the last thing Melinda May wants to do is get dragged into a Build-a-Bear with her boyfriend. Yet somehow, that's exactly where she ends up.
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Melinda May
Comments: 28
Kudos: 103





	qiaolian and captain ameribear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agentmmayy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentmmayy/gifts).



> from the prompt "what? it brings out your eyes". thanks so much for it!

Melinda  _ hated _ undercover ops in shopping malls. 

One, the mall was always crowded with roving teenagers, all of them more convinced that what was on their screen was more important than what was right in front of them. Secondly, all of her undercover shopping mall ops tended to be with Phil, and he was an absolute nightmare to keep in check whenever he spotted something window shopping. (Newbury Comics was an absolute no-go zone. Anyone that chose to commit a crime there would simply get away with it -- the alternative was having to deal with a pouty Phil Coulson throughout the rest of the op because she'd dragged him away from the latest backorder of Captain America comics.) Third, it meant she wasn't allowed to dress for combat; this was especially aggravating at shopping malls, because god forbid she dress for convenience rather than  _ style _ . 

Currently, this meant she was dressed in a forest green t-shirt tucked neatly into a pair of soft blue jeans, her normal fighting boots replaced with a pair of gray ankle boots. It was awful, really: one wrong move and her ankle would be all sorts of twisted. At least Fury'd agreed to let her keep the leather jacket. If she'd had to face the teenaged masses without it, she wasn't sure she would've lasted a solid minute, let alone the entire op. 

As it was, her difficulties lay in keeping track of Phil -- he'd wandered off three times within the last twenty minutes despite her half-pleas and reminders to  _ not leave her in the middle of Brookstone, goddammit, Phil --! _ \-- and was once again currently missing, leaving Melinda to sigh and scan for him, wondering what was it about window shopping that made her partner so excited. If it weren't for the fact that he was armed, she probably would've likened it to taking care of a child. "Phil," she called, self-consciousness setting in at the idea that she was standing in the middle of the mall, calling to seemingly no one. "Phil, I swear to god, if you went to sit in a Brookstone massage chair again --" 

"Gotcha coffee," All of a sudden, Phil was by her side, and only her extensive training kept Melinda from jumping out of her skin. "By which I mean coffee for me. Green tea for you." Scowling, she took the tea. "And no sign of Iyres. I don't think he's on the first floor; whatever it is he wants, it's probably on the second floor." It was exactly what she'd hoped  _ wouldn't _ happen -- not only was the second floor filled with infinitely more stores and a more branched out floor plan, it was going to be ten times harder to keep track of Phil. (She was sure the SHIELD budget was still recovering from the time he'd decided to invest in several Yogibo beanbag chairs.) 

She loved him -- truly, she did -- but sometimes she had to question his financial decisions. "The second floor it is, then. Did you update Fury and Hand on the situation?" 

Phil nodded. "They're shifting rounds as we speak." As much as he wandered around in stores, she had to admit he knew how to follow through. "Hey, Mel?" 

"Yeah?"

"...you think we'll have time to go to Newbury Comics?"

* * *

_ "So, I've got good news and bad news," _ Hand told them as Phil and Melinda watched as their target was led away by several plainclothes SHIELD agents, much to the confusion of the audience their little ambush had attracted. "Which one do you want first?" 

"Shoot us the good news," Phil said, brushing limestone off of his jacket. "Oh, Mel, you've got a piece of rock -- there," he said, reaching over and picking it off. "There we go. What's the good news, Hand?" 

_ "Well, the good news is that Iyres confessed to enough in his little monologue that he's going to be put away for life," _ Hand told them, and both of them shuddered at the fresh memory of it.  _ "Bad news is we didn't expect the cybernetic enhancements, so there's not enough room on the Quinjet to hold him  _ and _ extract your team."  _

Melinda groaned. She could already see where her afternoon was going. "If I don't show up tomorrow, I died in the Captain America comics backlog," she called. "Let us know when we're good for extraction." 

_ "Will do, Agent May. Over and out." _ Phil hung up and slipped the phone into his back pocket, grinning while Melinda mentally went over her will in her head. There was no way she was going to be able to get Phil out of the backlog buckets. None whatsoever. It was best she started planning while she was ahead.

"Just say it," she groaned, and his grin grew impossibly wider. How had she fallen in love with this dork of a man, anyway? 

"Looks like it's time to go --" A flash of light caught Phil's eye, and he turned to see an explosion of colors in the form of a sale advertisement at Build-A-Bear workshop. "Actually, you know what, Mel? We're not going to Newbury Comics this time." He'd have to go in the downtime of some other op, but such an opportunity was too good to waste. "We're going to do something much more fun." 

At least, he hoped it would be fun for her. He had a box in his pocket that depended on it.

* * *

When Phil had said  _ fun _ , Melinda'd thought he would mean something along the lines of the mall's laser tag arena. Or their axe-throwing arena. Or their bowling alley. Hell, she would've even been satisfied with their roller skating rink. 

Instead, she found herself staring down at buckets upon buckets of unstuffed animals, their stuffed counterparts beaming innocently up from them on their shelves. It was unsettling, quite honestly, to be in a place where she was surrounded by so many enthusiastic children -- she hadn't done that since she was at least in her twenties -- and she'd forgotten what the pitter-patter of feet sounded like. "Build-A-Bear?" she asked wryly of Phil, who was scanning the buckets with unadulterated glee. " _ Build-a-Bear _ was much more fun than Newbury Comics?" 

"They're having a sale!" Phil defended, holding up a red panda. "What?" he asked when she just gave him a look. "It brings out your eyes. Come on, Mel," he pouted, and she sighed. The Phil Coulson pout was  _ ruthless _ , and it was behind many of their more frivolous experiences as a couple. (She would never forgive him for the time they'd ended up staring down an octopus on a glass-bottomed boat.) "We can both do one. Be a kid again, even if it's just for a little while." Letting out another sigh, she took the panda and he cheered before picking up a Captain America bear. Of course he would've. 

Their next stop was the sound station, where Phil solemnly held an arm out to block Melinda before she could choose a sound. "Honestly, Mel, it's like you've never done this before," he faux-scoffed. "Everyone knows that if you stuff a bear with someone, they pick out your sounds and vice versa." 

"I haven't," she said quietly, and the speed at which his head whipped around to look at her could have rivalled a cheetah's. "This is the first time." Stuffed animals had always been billed as slightly frivolous growing up in the May household, something she'd taken with her throughout her life. A younger Melinda had always been jealous of the girls at school who'd paraded around with their teddy bears on pajama day, even more so of those who gushed about the stuffed animals they'd received for their birthdays. But as she'd grown older and the glee over teddy bears had turned into the occasional despair over the boyfriends who'd gifted them, the idea of having a stuffed companion represent the affection of a partner began to appeal less and less. 

That was, until now, while Phil was beaming at her with all of the excitement she should've had about creating a Build-a-Bear at five years old. She still marvelled at the fact that they were both agents sometimes. "Then I'm glad to have been the first," he said, his solemn tone at odds with the dismissal it'd contained earlier. "Will you let me pick the sound for your panda? I promise I'll make it important." 

Melinda took her time scanning the sounds and scents, skipping over the latter entirely to focus solely on a sound. Most of them tended to trend towards kids' songs, or at the very least towards ones she knew only existed on the top hits station Hill was so fond of playing. Nothing that screamed 'classic' or came  _ close _ to matching Phil's patriotic fluffy companion. Frowning, she reached for the 'create-your-own' option, casting her partner a sideways glance before darting into a corner to record her message. 

"Welcome to the stuffing station!" the staffer greeted as they progressed to the next station. Melinda cast an eye towards the large machine holding oodles of stuffing, watching as it was tossed around amid the multicolored lights. "Would you like your friend squishy-soft or squishy firm?" 

Phil cast a look at her, and she cast one equally as confused back. When she'd said she hadn't ever had a stuffed animal, she'd meant it. How was she supposed to know how firm she preferred them? "Can we start at squishy soft?" The staffer nodded, taking the sound from Melinda's hand and slipping it into the covering before sliding it onto the stuffing tube, clouds of stuffing moving from the machine into her little red panda. 

"How's that?" 

It was perfect, Melinda decided, smiling softly down at it as if it were already her child. There was something impish yet sincere about the panda's expression, and she could already tell it would be great to cuddle in her arms during the nights Phil was absent. Hell, she mused as she gave it another soft squeeze, maybe she'd even cuddle it when Phil  _ was _ there. "Squishy soft will do just fine," she said and handed it back to the staffer to sew up. 

"Would you like to make a wish before I close up?" they asked, and gestured to the fountain of small plush hearts that were currently blowing in a tube of compressed air. "All you have to do is close your eyes and make a wish as hard as you can!" 

She almost snorted. How old was she? Surely she wouldn't be expected to do that... But then she caught sight of Phil examining her curiously, watching to see her next move. "I'll make a wish," she decided, and examined the pile of hearts that had gathered at the bottom of the tube. Many of them were a proud ruby red, their newness apparent as they shone in the light. A few were even patterned with polka dots and floral patterns. 

On the bottom, however, there lay a seemingly forgotten heart, muted yet regal in its maroon coloring. It took Melinda's entire arm to reach in and get it, and once it was within her grasp, she exhaled slowly, closing her eyes. 

What did she want most in her life? What didn't she have yet that she would never even  _ allow _ herself to dream of? Visions of a white picket fence and two children swam across the forefront of her mind, of Phil tiredly chasing after a lively dog that'd decided to track mud in the house. It wasn't necessarily something she'd never allowed herself to dream about, but a sliver of extra luck couldn't hurt, could it? It couldn't, she decided, and sealed the wish with a tiny kiss to the heart before gently setting it into the opening the staffer had left in the back of the panda.

The little critter was stitched up without much more circumstance, and she watched as the process was repeated with Phil's Captain America bear, Phil grinning when he found a starred heart to match the patterns on the bear. 

"So what happens now?" Melinda asked once they'd thanked the staffer. She'd caught sight of the large white bathtub on the far wall when they'd walked in but hadn't thought much of it until now. "Do we dress it, or...?" 

Instead of answering, Phil held up his bear, holding its paw and waving it. "Now you've gotta give us baths!" the bear 'said' to her in a squeaky voice, and the absurdity of it all brought a small smile to her face. "We've gotta be nice and fluffy so our owners can cuddle us! See?" He used the bear's paw to point at the bathtub, where she spotted two brushes and a foot pedal. "Bath time, bath time!" 

She followed him to the tub, still laughing fondly at his voice. Phil really would make a good father, she mused, remembering the wish she'd made earlier. Together, the two of them brushed their stuffed animals in companionable silence, the compressed air blowing the fur every which way. 

" _ Now _ we dress them," Phil said solemnly, and she didn't miss how he'd switched to referring to their stuffed animals as a 'they'. "If you'll excuse me, I have a shield to procure." Melinda left him to his own devices, cradling her panda like a baby as she scanned the racks of clothes for something to dress it in. His 'a-ha!' could be heard several feet away, and she smiled, assuming he'd found the Captain America suit and shield to go with it. 

Her smile grew even wider when she spotted a leather jacket hanging on a cardboard hook in the corner of the racks, leaning up and snagging it. Next came a pair of black high-tops, a pair of aviators and suddenly it was like she was looking at a miniature version of herself. If the real-life version regularly shopped for stuffed animals and smiled as much as she had in the last hour. She couldn't put her finger on why, but the amount of affection she was prepared to pour into the little panda was  _ way _ more than she'd expected to. 

Maybe it was the fact that Phil'd suggested they go to Build-a-Bear. Or that he'd picked the panda out for her. One never knew with Phil Coulson -- Melinda just did her best to love him as he did her. 

"Looks just like you, Mel," Phil said, and she turned to see his Captain America bear dressed in an exact suit and shield, as she'd guessed. But in his other hand, Phil held a separate hanger, this one with a blue suit and sunglasses. "That one's for when he has to appear at EU meetings." 

She stifled a laugh. Captain America in EU meetings always meant the next morning's headlines would be hilarious. "So now, we...we do the bear certificates?" 

He nodded. "I hope you've thought of a good name. Don't want to scar them for life." The two of them sat at a computer bank, pulling out the keyboards and typing to fill out the blanks. "Captain...Ameribear...what?" he asked when Melinda just shook her head, smiling widely. "He can't be named Captain America! That's copyright infringement! Besides," he sniffed. "At least I  _ have _ a name." 

She winced, pretending to cover her panda's ears. "It's okay, Qiaolian," she murmured to it, missing how one side of Phil's mouth quirked up in a grin. "Don't listen to anything meanie Mr Phil says. He's just a meanie." The name had come to her in a moment of panic -- but now that she'd chosen it, it fit remarkably well. "Red fur, brown eyes, 10 inches and 9 ounces. Date of birth...today. And belongs to me." The statement sent a little thrill through her. She owned a stuffed animal. A friend. "Melinda May. Print." 

"Qiaolian and Captain Ameribear," Phil chuckled. "I think they'd make a fantastic duo." He hoped the combination of their last names, would too. Just a little while longer...

* * *

"See, didn't you have fun?" he cajoled a little while later. The two of them were ensconced at a table outside of a Cold Stone, the sun beaming down on their newly found friends and cups of ice cream. "Build-a-Bear doesn't have to just be for  _ kids _ \-- adults can do it, too." 

"There were way too many kids for it to be considered a hybrid age activity," Melinda argued back, but she still reached to pat Qiaolian on the head. The panda did a little bobble under her touch, and she smiled. She could see the appeal, although she doubted any other stuffed animal could replace it at this point. "But I'm glad I did it." Another bop, this time accompanied by a ruffle of the head. "Did you listen to the sound I recorded for you yet?" 

Phil shot her an easy grin before lifting Captain Ameribear's paw to his ear and squeezing it, listening. ' _ It's July 14th, 2018, and this might be the most childish thing we've ever done, Phil Coulson,' _ came her amused voice, ' _ but I wouldn't do it with anyone else.' _ "Aww, Mel," she smiled, and leaned to kiss her. 

He tasted like vanilla ice cream and pecans, courtesy of his smash-in choice, and she pulled back with a smile just as wide as his. Lifting Qiaolian's paw to her ear, she squeezed it, oblivious of the fact that Phil had gotten out of his chair and was fishing around in his pockets.  _ 'It's July 14th, 2018, and I don't know a lot, but I know you're the love of my life, Melinda May,' _ Phil's recording whispered.  _ 'And I hope you'll be for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?' _

There was a loud chorus of gasps and 'awww's behind her, and Melinda turned to see Phil on one knee, Captain Ameribear balancing on it and his tiny paws holding open a small box. "Well, I don't know about Captain Ameribear, we just met," she grinned, though her heart seemed to have taken on the speed of a jackhammer. "That's awfully bold of him. But you, Phil Coulson." She bent to his level, taking his face in her hands before leaning in for another soft kiss. "For you, I'll kick ass  _ and _ take your name." 

The crowd erupted into cheers as the two of them stood up, Phil gently sliding the ring onto her finger while Captain Ameribear watched on. "Did you really drag me into a Build-a-Bear solely so you could trick me into getting a stuffed animal so you could propose?" Melinda asked, the grin from before stuck to her face. She didn't know how fast wishes worked, but the way she was going, she'd be on track to make hers come true within no time. 

"No," Phil blushed, scratching at the back of his neck. "I  _ was _ going to go to Newbury Comics, but I saw that Build-a-Bear was having a sale and that you could record your own sounds. It all just kind of sprouted from there, didn't it, Captain Ameribear?" he asked, and the patriotically colored bear nodded. "The opportunity presented itself, so I kind of just went for it." The admission was so sheepish, so spontaneous, so quintessentially  _ Phil _ that it made her smile grow wider. 

"Well, I'll have you know Qiaolian appreciates it very much," she said, lifting the red panda to kiss Phil's cheek before moving to do the same herself. "And I couldn't be happier to be your fiancee."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> If there's a pairing you'd like to see, I'm taking prompts off of [this](https://justanalto.tumblr.com/post/622842304685834240/300-prompts) and [this](https://justanalto.tumblr.com/post/623191689172058112/send-me-a-ship-and-one-of-these-and-ill-write-a) list!


End file.
